Medium [CVE-2026-74750] defer key slot crypto freeing to workqueue

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ovpn: defer key slot crypto freeing to workqueue Key slots are released through a kref and the existing release path frees the AEAD transforms from an RCU callback.

That is not safe for all crypto implementations: crypto_free_aead can sleep, for example when an async or hardware implementation has teardown work to complete. Use queue_rcu_work for key-slot release.

This keeps the RCU grace period needed by lockless key-slot readers, but runs the actual crypto teardown from workqueue context where sleeping is allowed.

Once the rcu_work callback runs, pre-existing RCU readers are gone, and the final kref put already proves that no transform user remains, so the worker can release the AEAD transforms and free the slot directly. The previous patch drains ovpn_wq during module exit, so queued key-slot teardown work cannot outlive module text.

This vulnerability arises from an incorrect handling of cryptographic resource freeing, where a function that requires the ability to pause (sleep) is executed in a context that does not allow it. This improper resource management could lead to system instability or a kernel crash, potentially resulting in a Denial of Service (DoS) for the affected system.

Red Hat severity: Moderate — CVSS 5.5 (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H). Weakness: CWE-663.